Congratulations to the BC Greens! Not only has party leader Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA Andrew Weaver been re-elected, he will now be joined by new MLAs, Sonia Furstenau in Cowichan Valley and and Adam Olsen in Saanich North and the Islands. Although Green candidates have broken through in legislatures here and there, this historic election is the first to have elected a Provincial Green Caucus. Just as in the USA and UK, Canada’s unfair First Past The Post electoral system makes it exceptionally difficult for small party and independent candidates to get elected. And even when they are, Canadian legislatures have added another artificial barrier: a political party can be duly registered, and run candidates and even manage to win seats in the legislature, but the legislature has imposed a threshold before an elected party is entitled to receive additional perks. In BC the threshold is 4 seats, so our new Green caucus is one seat shy of official party status.

Although the dust hasn’t quite settled yet, neither the BC Liberals or BC NDP won a majority in the election. If this is still the case after recounts and absentee ballots have been incorporated into the tally, the BC Greens will hold the balance of power. Leader Andrew Weaver has expressed a willingness to work with whoever necessary to make government work, but his two non-negotiable points are legislation to get big money out of politics, and Proportional Representation. Lets keep our fingers crossed for that excellent BC outcome!

It took some doing, but our current Party Leader Elizabeth May broke through to become Canada’s first elected Green MP. She was followed at the provincial level by Andrew Weaver in BC, Peter Bevan-Baker in PEI, and David Coon in New Brunswick. Now it’s time to meet the BC Greens:

Adam Olsen, Saanich North and the Islands

Sonia Furstenau, Cowichan Valley

Andrew Weaver, Oak Bay-Gordon Head

Check out our Green World to find out more about Greens elected in Canada and abroad.